Hey...that's OUR pork your frying there!
Us scruffy press types spent some time this afternoon with Bill Graham, a Salisbury lawyer who has been bankrolling radio ads and a web site railing against the recent gas tax increase. (Click here for some background.)
Among other things, Graham has been circulating an online petition and now claims to have more than 22,000 "signatures" asking the honorables to come back to town and repeal the 2.8-cent per gallon gas tax jump that took effect Jan. 1.
Part of Graham's case against the tax is that money is transferred from the highway trust fund to other projects, which is true. (Some would argue that the money is transferred over to the general fund to compensate for money lost when the tax was first created. But then you get into the question of how much should that amount be now given inflation and I just haven't downed enough coffee yet today to wade through those numbers.)
Anywho...Graham's argument goes that you wouldn't need these automatic tax increases if highway money was spent on, well, highways, rather than making those general fund transfers.
And if you virtually "sign" his petition, you get a message back that thanks your and reads in part:
It is time to restore common sense to Raleigh. It is time to stop spending $400,000 on a teapot museum and $2 million on an ACC Hall of Fame.
Hey...that there is Greensboro's ACC Hall of Fame thank you very much! Why, if you ask our local honorables they'll even tell you that it's not pork. No sir! That there is, um, economic development spending, yeah, that's what that is. (Now as for teapot museums that aren't located anywhere near Guilford County, well...)
Graham said he planned to deliver his petitions to Gov. Easley, Senate Leader Marc Basnight and Speaker Black today or tomorrow.
And speaking of tomorrow: The legislature will hold its ad-hoc committee meeting on fuel prices and taxes at 10 a.m. (Thursday).